


gotcha gacha luck

by painttheworldinpastels



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: BanG Dream! - Freeform, Established Relationship, Gacha games, Genshin impact, M/M, Pocket Camp, a3! - Freeform, pining but for a PNG instead of an actual person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28113078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/painttheworldinpastels/pseuds/painttheworldinpastels
Summary: [NOT CLICKBAIT] I GOT VENTI?!? Idiot Plays Genshin Impact, a playthrough by HaechanCam featuring his Venti-less boyfriendAlternatively, Donghyuck's terrific gacha luck coupled with Jeno's terrible one ultimately proves to be a good combination.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno
Comments: 10
Kudos: 62





	gotcha gacha luck

Jeno had dreamt of being famous once upon a time, he'll admit. He was a ten year old boy, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, imagining that he would be the first person to step on Mars as he lounged on the sofa with his older sister, watching a documentary about the 4th planet and how it might _possibly_ be able to sustain life. When he'd told his sister this new life goal, she had smiled at him and patted his head, saying he could definitely do anything he wanted to.

(On his fifteenth birthday, at around the time he'd given up his astronomical dream and opted for the more achievable engineering track, his sister gifts him with a well-made solar system model, complete with orbits and asteroids and everything Jeno had wanted to see from space, and he bursts into happy tears.)

He never thought that his old dream of being famous would ever come true— _especially_ not this way. He never would have imagined himself at age twenty with a rising YouTube star for a boyfriend.

Okay, maybe "rising star" is a bit of a stretch, but he has a steady 30k subscribers (and counting) and almost 20k Twitter followers (also still counting), and if that doesn't scream **FAME** in big, bold letters, Jeno doesn't know what does. His boyfriend makes him cameo in videos sometimes, making Jeno famous by association.

He doesn't wonder why Donghyuck is a hit. His boyfriend is loud, brash, and brazen, but also charming and oh so endearing. Donghyuck—or Haechan, as the internet knows him—is a force of nature, and Jeno is delighted to be swept up in his path.

"This is HaechanCam with a viewer rating of 35.7%," Donghyuck smiles at the camera, bright and sunny. "I know I promised another cover last time and I'll post one next week! Please drop song suggestions in Twitter user fullsunhaera's pinned!

"We're gonna do something different today," he continues, settling into the huge and comfy gaming chair he had pestered Jeno into helping him haul inside his cramped dorm room. Donghyuck has a single, courtesy of signing up as soon as dorm forms were released, and so Donghyuck's only audience on this rainy Saturday afternoon is his trusty iPhone and his trusty boyfriend (otherwise known as tech support). "A couple of days ago a game called Genshin Impact dropped, and it's all my boyfriend has been dedicating his time to," Donghyuck starts, rolling his eyes. "Frankly, I feel very ignored. So today I will play it and see what's so great about some guy named Diluc.

"I downloaded it on pc—actually, no, this is my boyfriend's laptop. There is no way in hell I am wasting 12 GB of storage space for a game I'll probably forget to play in a week or two, no offense." Donghyuck raises Jeno's MacBook, making sure that the Genshin Impact loading screen is seen in the frame before putting it down. "You have a screen recorder application on here, right, bubbywub?"

"Yes dear," Jeno pipes up from where he's sitting on the bed, playing none other than Genshin Impact. "You don't want to download it on your pc but you're willing to waste my MacBook's storage? That's not very nice, Haechie."

Donghyuck raises his arms in defense. "This is for you too! When I eventually get bored of it, at least you'll have a copy of your beloved game on _two_ devices!"

Jeno shakes his head in fake upset and then brings his attention back to his phone screen, thinking of a way to sneak up on the herd of mitachurls beyond the boulder his character was currently hiding behind.

The air is filled with nondescript chatter as Donghyuck reads out information from the official website. Jeno's character is almost killed in the onslaught of an attack and he's a bit disappointed to find that the reward is only an exquisite chest; it wasn't really worth all that trouble, but beggars can't be choosers. 

"Baby," Donghyuck calls while Jeno is in the middle of reviving Aether with all the fruit in his inventory. "There's a canon player, right?"

"Aether is the character depicted in the web manga, if that's what you mean. The male one. They're twins."

"Great, I'll go with the girl, then."

Jeno clicks his tongue, bowing his head so Donghyuck can't see the small smile spreading on his face. 

The next few minutes are peaceful, punctuated with mouse clicks from Donghyuck and aggressive tap-tapping from Jeno, until Donghyuck gasps. "Did...did the twin just get _kidnapped?!_ "

Donghyuck twirls his chair to face Jeno, who puts his phone down to give Hyuck an enthusiastic round of jazz hands. "Surpriiiiise! Your main goal is to find the twin."

"That shouldn't be too hard, right?" Donghyuck wonders, and Jeno gets up to whirl Donghyuck's chair around so he's facing the laptop once more. He leans in, placing his chin on Donghyuck's right shoulder, and says in the sultriest tone he can muster, "Why don't you play and find out, babycakes."  
☆  
It has been an hour since Donghyuck started playing, and thirty minutes since Lumine was deposited on the beach with little explanation and only Paimon as company. Thirty minutes of Donghyuck loitering up and down the seashore, catching crabs and wondering what on earth to do next.

"Okay. What now?" he'd asked Jeno expectantly as soon as Paimon finished narrating what little they knew about the MC. However, Jeno had refused to answer, only shrugging in response. It earned him a cute huff and a vow to never buy Jeno boba ever again, a vow that Jeno _knows_ Donghyuck will forget by tomorrow.

When Jeno looks at the clock hanging above Donghyuck's door frame and sees that it has been forty-five minutes of Donghyuck wandering aimlessly on the beach, he decides to end Donghyuck's misery and steps in. He hands the mouse to Donghyuck when it's time to defeat the first enemy to show up in the game (a slime ball that would have been kind of adorable if it wasn't out to get the MC), and then he instructs Donghyuck to head towards the Teleporter and activate it. He leaves it up to Donghyuck after that, confident that he'd be able to figure the rest out on his own.

Jeno's not wrong; Donghyuck manages to make it through the rest of Prologue One in one piece. He even figures out how to clear out the hilichurl bandit camp despite having accidentally killed off Amber beforehand, a feat that Jeno doesn't know how Donghyuck accomplished.

Haechan's playthrough looks a little like this:

"Jen, what the hell, the treasures jumped out of the chest?!"

"Oh no, I die if I swim for too long?"

"JENO OHMYGOD HOW DO I GET THIS CHARACTER TO STOP CLIMBING?!?! MAKE HER STOP!!!"

"You mean I _don't_ regenerate with time?" This complaint sounds the most disheartened, and the crestfallen look on Donghyuck's face is what prompts Jeno to take pity on him and tell him about Genshin food.

"Ooooh, I can cook?!" Donghyuck's eyes sparkle with mirth, and Jeno hates having to break it to him that it's merely clicking the meter when it lands on the green bar instead of a full-blown cooking game.

"Oh," Donghyuck pouts after Jeno's rundown. "Eh, I'll take what I can get. How do I cook?"

It takes another hour for Donghyuck to reach the gates of Mondstadt, since he keeps getting sidetracked and approaching everything that glitters. Jeno can't blame him for that; that was something he himself did at first. Paimon has to forcibly turn Donghyuck's character around when he decides to make Lumine go in the opposite direction from where the compass is pointing to, and Jeno watches fondly as Donghyuck enters Mondstadt and chats up every NPC in the vicinity.

"Okayyyyy," Donghyuck drags the word out, lifting his head to face the camera. "Now for the moment we've all been waiting for! Jeno, how do I pull in the gacha?"

"Go to the main menu—no, click Paimon, great, you've got it!—and then click on Wish."

Donghyuck rubs his hands together and rambles on, building up tension for the grand reveal. Jeno ruins that tension by slipping his arms around Donghyuck, wordlessly trading stardust and primogens for fates so his boyfriend can pull without a care in the world. Donghyuck rewards him with a cheek kiss and Jeno sits on the edge of Donghyuck's bed, far enough to give Donghyuck privacy but close enough for him to act quickly if Donghyuck encounters any problems. He drops his gaze to his phone, going about his daily commissions as Donghyuck decides on a banner to pull from.

"I'm gonna pull from this one with the funky little green chara, he looks cool," Jeno hears Donghyuck announce. His mouth quirks up in a little smile. Ah yes, the limited time character banner. Jeno hopes Donghyuck won't be too disappointed in the results.

There's silence, and then there's a contemplative hum. "Hey, babe," Donghyuck calls. "Is Venti a good character?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I got him, lol. Wait, is he the funky little green chara on the poster?"

"What?" Jeno jumps—literally _leaps_ —off the bed and rushes to Donghyuck, where a glorious Venti is displayed on his laptop's screen.

"No way," Jeno breathes out.

"Jen? You okay?"

"Yeah," Jeno mutters. "Yeah, I'm good. You're good. Venti's good."

"Alright, we've got a good character! Let's see what else we have. Wait, another one?" Jeno peers at the screen and sees Venti again, and then again when Donghyuck clicks the mouse once more.

Jeno heads back to the bed and sits down, filled with disbelief. C2 Venti in one ten-pull. That should be impossible, but apparently not.

"Let's try this other one! It uses...the color of the currency is different! That's so pretty! Okay, and...click!"

Jeno is torn between watching the screen or looking away in case Donghyuck pulls—

"Babe! I got your other boyfie!" Donghyuck yells cheerfully, and Jeno feels his soul leave his body. Donghyuck had managed to get Diluc within 10 minutes of pulling while Jeno had been trying for _days_ now. He's not at the point of spending money yet, but if Diluc doesn't come home within the week he might just tap into his life savings and whale for him.

Jeno, against better judgment, observes as Donghyuck sorts through his pulls. Noelle. Barbara. Fischl. Ningguang. Jeno thinks his heart stops pumping for a second when a second Diluc appears on-screen. C1.

"That was so fun! The character designs are amazing, Junnie would love them," Donghyuck muses. "I think I'm ready to go back to playing now. Jen, how do I exit this screen?"

Jeno stares blankly at Donghyuck as he weaves his way through the plaza, as he tries out the glider, and as he defeats Stormterror. Jeno only snaps out of it when he hears the slow clapping and sees the sexy man in blue, and then he sits up straight. _Here we go_ , he thinks, glancing at his boyfriend, who is completely enamoured with this new character.

"You've actually got the power to go up against the dragon," Kaeya says, voice dripping with seduction, though whether that was or wasn't the voice actor's intention is up for debate. "Are you a new ally...or a new storm?"

"Babe." Donghyuck looks absolutely mystified. "I think I would break up with you for Kaeya."

Jeno nods solemnly. "Understandable, baby. Big same."

"Well that was fun, but sadly that is all we have time for today, since I have paper due in a bit," Donghyuck declares as soon as he reaches the cathedral. "Thank you for watching, this was HaechanCam with a viewer rating of 35.7%, and I'll see you next time! Bye-bye!"

As soon as Donghyuck stops recording, Jeno shoves his phone into Donghyuck's hands. "Please, Hyuckie," Jeno pleads desperately. "Just one pull."

Donghyuck is confused, but he presses 1 wish on the Venti banner nevertheless. Jeno chants a prayer in his head as they wait for the screen to load. When he sees the shadow that he's yearned so long for, he presses a quick kiss to Donghyuck's lips. "Donghyuck, baby, you're the best!"

"I am?" Donghyuck blinks up at him, still seated on his gaming chair. "It's not Venti, though."

"I don't care, I've wanted Diluc for so long!" Jeno proceeds to pepper Donghyuck's face with light kisses. "Thank you, Hyuckie!"

Donghyuck laughs as Jeno smothers him with affection, and Jeno feels his heart double in size. There's enough space for both Donghyuck and Diluc there, but he'd kick out Diluc without batting an eye if Donghyuck wanted him to.

(And that's saying something about how much he loves Donghyuck, since he would have stopped at _nothing_ to wrench Diluc from Mihoyo's grubby capitalist hands.)  
☆  
HaechanCam is mainly a cover channel. At least, that's what Donghyuck told him when he decided to open it. "I'm gonna bless the world with my beautiful voice," Donghyuck had proclaimed, and Jeno had immediately expressed his support.

 _"You can do anything you put your mind to,"_ Jeno remembers his sister telling him, and those words are what calm Donghyuck whenever the anxiousness and doubt kick in. It becomes something of a mantra for the both of them, and they show their gratitude by showering Jeno's older sister with (most of the time useless) little trinkets that they think she'd like. A crow's love language, one could say.

When he started blowing up, Renjun had bought Donghyuck food for an entire week in an attempt to bribe him for a collab. Chenle's way was simpler—essentially a threat. _"Do a cover with me and the Taemin photocards stay safe in your binder sandwiched in between your lab manuals in the second row of your bookshelf."_ Jaemin volunteered to revamp Donghyuck's intro and ending cards, and Jisung would sometimes tag along as Donghyuck's cameraman whenever Donghyuck filmed outdoors. Mark and Jeno, and sometimes Jaemin and Chenle, would provide background music when prompted, and then suddenly HaechanCam was a group project.

But it was still wholeheartedly _Donghyuck's._ HaechanCam is his pride and joy, and their friends have never infringed rights on it. They look on proudly as another one of Donghyuck's covers hit the 100k view count, and then they make Donghyuck pay for their next group meal using ad revenue generated from the latest vid. Donghyuck whines but he takes them to an expensive restaurant anyway, smile dazzling and heart full.

Jeno even had a cover of his own up on the channel. It's a cover of AKMU's Dinosaur that he sang with Jisung as Donghyuck floods them with praise and encouragements in the background, and it's one of the most viewed videos on HaechanCam. Jeno is simultaneously flattered and embarrassed.

HaechanCam's Genshin Impact playthrough, entitled _Idiot Plays Genshin Impact_ at Renjun's insistence, becomes his video with the highest view count in the shortest amount of time. It garners 1M views in a week, and even Donghyuck is surprised at how successful it is. But it's not the playthrough that the masses are swarming the video for—it's the pulls.

The comments are filled with either awe or anger at C2-in-one-ten-pull Venti, and people are begging Donghyuck to pull for them ( _"give me your address good sir and let me ship my phone to you"_ is the most liked comment) or demanding that the rates be increased. (He doesn't know why people bother to comment about that last bit on Donghyuck's video, considering Donghyuck is in no way affiliated with Genshin's company, but they're not spewing profanities at Donghyuck so Donghyuck doesn't see any problems with it.)

Donghyuck is deemed the Gacha King, and no one argues with it. Some people brush it off as a fluke though, a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence that will never happen to anyone ever again.

Jokes's on them, because Jeno soon finds out that the Haechan Golden Hands theory is fucking _canon._

_☆_

Jeno's not usually this desperate for a card. Really, he's not, but he's already spent around 1k gems on the Wonderland revival tryouts and SSR Itaru _still_ won't come home. It's Jeno's last chance to forcibly drag this card home, and he's not making good progress. He stares at the image of it that he has as his homescreen wallpaper (his lockscreen is a Donghyuck selfie) and sighs heavily.

He kind of feels like an idiot for yearning for a glorified PNG, but one look at the wiki page, at Itaru with his lil tophat and the cute pink and grey suit and the gentle way he holds the teacup, quells his complaints. He _needs_ this card, and if he dies trying then so be it.

"You alright, babe?" Donghyuck asks from where he sits in between Jeno's legs. Jeno grunts an affirmative, crossing his fingers and hoping for the best as he does yet another ten-pull.

He holds his breath, waiting for the chibi sprites to finish doing their silly little backflips, waiting for the silver to turn gold. Four of the silvers change color, and Jeno allows himself to hope.

No Itaru Wonderland SSR. No event cards, not even a single new card. The entire batch is dupes of ones he already has, and Jeno lets his phone slide onto the bed as he buries his head in his hands.

"Fuck you, A3," he grumbles in despair. It catches Donghyuck's attention, and he pushes Jeno's bangs aside to get a better look at his face. "Jen?"

"Hmmm."

"What happened?"

"No Itaru," is all Jeno says in response, and Donghyuck _understands_. He's well aware of how much Jeno loves Itaru. Jeno would forfeit all mortal possessions to Itaru if possible, and Donghyuck supports it. The Itaru omanjuu Donghyuck bought for his birthday sits on Jeno's desk proudly, a symbol of Donghyuck's acceptance of Itaru's importance in Jeno's life.

Donghyuck takes one look at Jeno's forlorn expression, and then he holds out his hand. "Can I try?"

Jeno glances at his phone screen. He still has enough for a few single pulls, and Jeno can't say no to Donghyuck when it comes to simple things like these, so he hands his phone over without much thinking.

One single pull later, he is so fucking glad he didn't say no.

"Ooooh, this card is pretty!" Donghyuck marvels as the Itaru's Wonderland SSR takes up the screen. Jeno's eyes threaten to bulge out of its sockets. Donghyuck is grinning, going through Jeno's card roster and pointing out the ones he thinks look the best, completely oblivious to Jeno's shock.

"Oh," Donghyuck stops talking when he eventually notices how stiff Jeno is. "Is this not the card you wanted?" Donghyuck is pouting, voice filled with concern, and at that moment Donghyuck surpasses _both_ Itaru and Diluc in Jenoduce. 

"It's everything I've ever wanted," Jeno manages to croak out. He buries his head into the juncture of Donghyuck's neck and shoulder, watching as Donghyuck continues perusing his game. "Thank you, Hyuckie."

Donghyuck turns his head to kiss Jeno's nose softly. With Donghyuck _and_ Itaru's Wonderland SSR by his side, Jeno feels like he's on top of the world.

☆

Donghyuck isn't big on mobile games, Jeno found out as soon as they were close enough to refer to each other as friends. He preferred playing on his pc, but there are mobile games that Donghyuck would _never_ allow himself to be parted from, if he could help it.

The first is Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which is mildly different from the other games in the Animal Crossing series. There's still fishing and bug-hunting involved, but it was more of a decorating game than anything. Jeno had tried downloading it once before, just to see what Donghyuck liked about it, and the fact that he can't play it legally (hello, APK) immediately turned him off.

Donghyuck doesn't mind having a bajillion APK files clogging up his phone storage though, and he waits not-so-patiently for an APK update whenever needed. Their friends have even learned how to tell that Pocket Camp requires an update solely based on Donghyuck's behavior; he would get antsy and he wouldn't let go of his phone, aggressively refreshing the Pocket Camp discord.

(The other game Donghyuck goes batshit for is fucking Homescapes, but Jeno simply pretends his boyfriend is not addicted to a—admittedly not that terrible—puzzle game.)

Surprisingly, Pocket Camp is a gacha game. Jeno is no stranger to free-to-play games that encourage in-game spending, so there's no judgement on his part whenever Donghyuck buys another leaf ticket pack.

Unsurprisingly, whenever Donghyuck rolls, he always gets the 5-star item.

Unfortunately, Donghyuck gets multiples of the 5-star item more often than not whenever he does a five-pull, and it frustrates the hell out of him.

"I don't want dupes," Donghyuck grouses as he stares angrily at the three 5-star items from his latest fortune cookie pulls. "I just want the cute 3-star item but nooooo. What the hell am I gonna go with three shrines?!"

At times like these, the only consolation Jeno can offer is a pat on the back and a proposal to try rolling for the item Donghyuck wants. With how bad his luck is, Jeno is sure he'd _only_ get 3-star items.

Sometimes, Donghyuck's fantastic gacha luck is a curse, and Jeno cancels it out with his dreadful one. It all works out though, because at the end of the day Donghyuck gets the 3-star item he wanted so badly and Jeno gets lots and lots of thank you kisses.

☆

Jeno should stop playing gacha games. He really should, considering how shitty his luck is and how much the gacha gods hate him, but Chenle introduces him to Bandori and his bisexual ass immediately falls for half of the pretty characters.

And at the time that Jeno starts playing, the limited time Christmas gacha box is released.

Jeno stares down at the picture Chenle sent him of his own blessed 10-pull, with three 4-star cards. He breathes in, breathes out, opens up the Bandori Garupa app, and tries his hand at a 10-pull.

All he gets are 1-star and 2-star characters.

To be fair, Jeno is new to this game and he doesn't have a firm grasp of how it works yet so he doesn't consider this pull _bad_ , but his heart sinks a little when he looks the cards up and finds out that they're quite common.

 _It's fine,_ he thinks, opening a live room. Bandori is a rhythm game, and he's fairly good at those. It's a good thing that his horrendous gacha luck doesn't affect his coordination.

Jeno completes at least five lives and is in the middle of one more when Donghyuck barges into his dorm room.

"Jenoooo," Donghyuck drawls, throwing himself onto Jeno's bed. Jeno wrenches his body away so Donghyuck's movement doesn't destroy his combo, and though Donghyuck pouts in response, he stays perfectly still until Jeno finishes the round.

"What'cha playing?" Donghyuck asks when Jeno puts his phone down to greet him, and Jeno tells him all about Chenle and his powers of persuasion, strong enough to coax Jeno into deleting several apps to make space for Bandori. Donghyuck listens attentively, and his eyes light up when Jeno mentions that there's a gacha involved.

"Have you pulled yet?"

Jeno pulls Donghyuck closer, nuzzling into his neck. "Yeah, but you could probably guess how that went."

"Aawww, poor baby." Donghyuck pulls back just enough for him to meet Jeno's gaze, and his smile is mischievous. "Want me to pull for you?"

Jeno isn't even surprised at what happens next. He hands Donghyuck his phone, and Donghyuck pulls _five_ 4-stars, including one of the limited edition cards from the Christmas box. He pats Donghyuck's head in gratitude, and then bemoans his gacha fate.

"No more gachas," Jeno says weakly. "Society has progressed past the need for gachas."

Donghyuck studies him for a moment, and then he sits up straight. He's still on Jeno's lap so Jeno sees how Donghyuck's expression morphs from contemplating to impish. "Let's play a game, Jen."

"Is it a gacha?"

Donghyuck grins cheekily at him. "Yup."

Jeno leans back, resting his head against the headboard. "Then I'm not interested. Sorry, Hyuckie."

"You'll like this one!" Donghyuck grabs onto Jeno's hands, clutching them tight. "Unlimited pulls! If you kiss the correct spot, you get a special prize."

"Oh?" Jeno leans forward, cupping Donghyuck's face in his hands. "What kind of prize?"

Donghyuck smiles at him again. It's not his YouTuber smile, or his forced-to-be-amiable smile, or the gleeful grin he wears whenever they're with their friends, or the soft smile he gives the kids (Chenle and Jisung). It's a smile reserved for Jeno and Jeno only, gentle yet radiant.

 _This isn't so bad,_ Jeno thinks as he teases Donghyuck by pressing kisses to the corners of his mouth. If his terrible gacha luck gives him a Donghyuck in his lap, laughing so much that just looking at him makes Jeno unbelievably happy as well, then he doesn't mind never being able to pull a good card.

(He's kidding. Gacha gods, please be kind at least once.)

**Author's Note:**

> this fic stems from a joke i made to my friend about how if i wanted to go viral i'd just post a video of my playthrough and title it with "Idiot Plays Genshin Impact" because it was such a mess hahaha
> 
> The games mentioned are as follows:  
> • Genshin Impact  
> • A3!  
> • Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp  
> • BanG Dream! Girls Band Party
> 
> I haven't been as invested in ficdom lately but I wanted to drop an offering before the year ends! Thank you for all of your support so far, and I hope you had fun reading this super indulgent fic!
> 
> twt: [@whatsavotingacc](https://twitter.com/whatsavotingacc?s=09)


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